IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 11.25 [y m 12.2 U£ 12.0 1.4 HA HI.6 6" rnuiO^oipiiIu .Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STRHT WltSTn,N.Y. MStO (71«)I73>4S03 4R> > ff. A*:^ ,^ ^Z<^ ^\<^ 4(& ^ CIHM Microfiche Series (Monographs) ICIMH Collection de microfiches (monographies) Canadian Instituta for Historical IMicroraproductions / Institut Canadian da microraproductiona historiquaa TechniMi and Bibliographic Notai / Notes techniques et biblio«raphiques The institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. n Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur Covers damaged/ Couverture en«.iomm^ Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur^ et/ou pelliculit □ Cover title Le titre de missing/ couverture manque D Coloured maps/ Caites giographiques en couleur L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a iti possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mithode normale de f ilmage sont indiquis ci-dessoui. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur □ Pages damaged/ Pages endommagtet □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur^s et/ou pelliculies Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d^olortes, tacheties ou piquees □ Pages detached/ Pages ditachies D n n n Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relie avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serr^ peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distorsion le long de la marge interieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^s lurs d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, iorjque cela etait possible, ces oages n'ont pas ete filmtes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplementaires: 0Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of print varies/ Qualite inegale de I'ii legale de I'impression Continuous pagination/ Pagmation continue D □ Includes index(es)/ Comprend un (des) indeu Title on header taken from:/ Le titre de I'enttte provient: □ Title page of issue/ Page de titre de la livraison □ Caption of issue/ Titre de depart de la li vraison I I Masthead/ Generique (periodiques) de la livraison This Item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est f ilme au taux de reduction indique ci-dessous. ^OX ux 1IX 12X 16X 20X 22X 26 X 30X 24 X 28 X H 32t The copy filmad here hes been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: Bibliothdque natlonale du Quebec L'exeniplaire film* fut reproduit grAce i la g4n4rosit«i de: Bibliothdque nationale du Quebec The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering ;he condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^> (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les images suivantes ont 6t« reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettet« de I'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimis sont fiimis en commen^ant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'iiiustration. soit par le second plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont fiimis en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'iiiustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de chaque microficne, selon le cas: le symbols — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicsssaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 22 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 Is^ vvJ(S \-^^^^ .\%V ^. \, \ ^vt- X^ / *•// ^'JH^Mf^f' ^^'^ i* : io I iarrhoea, Cholera Morbus^ Dyscntefy, etc Price 956. COVERNTON'S NIPPLE OIL For Cracked or Sore Nipples. Pric«ijc :| USE . COVERNTON'S ALPINE CREAM «tc. A most delightful preparation for the Toilet. Pri^^ C, J. COYERNTON & CO. fiff BirilDV ayn MAMA«a«A.«u^ -- .- ^/wwA, ' 469 St Lawnnce Sifwt, MONTUBMhi /'tit ; ,i : ■ ^ it' .Tim rrHf ^ASH, ^ening the ig Dentist* B JHERRY^ Price asc ERRY Price 8f&. Pric»g|c^ SANTA BARBARA. FreeUee^ ?riceabscure le can he old d, yel- sacris- :ed be- s after which warm ain of eflects lere is ie the id the )ut of 3 vault Doping pene- Frasi- jed to g, and If i SANTA BARBARA. 15 who was unwilling to leave the place as yet felt his eyelids grow heavy and his hand be- come slow to obey him. All things invited to repose; the cool mar- ble parapet of the cloisters, the drowsy hum of the bees rifling the stocks and carnations the monotonous chant of the choristers re^ peatmg their lesson, the silence which pre- vailed everywhere else, for at midday the foundry hammers ceased ; and Dorat, resist- ing his indolent impulses but a moment, strolled to the cloister on his left, and threw himself down on the marble ledge in the shadow. There he in another moment fell asleep, the hum of the bees and the hymn of the choristers lulling him to slumber as a song sung low lulls a child. Soon the chant- ing ceased, and all was completely still. 1 here was no sound except his own even breathing and the buzzing of the bees in the httle garden ; the monks were mumbling over their midday fish and bread in their refectory the sun poured down on the brown brick wall of the church, and the flowers drooped under the strength of its rays. Dor^t slept on un- disturbed, his head on his arm, his limbs out- stretched, his head, handsome as the Anti- nous of Canova, his face pale from the habits i6 SANTA BARBARA, oi \\u life, his slender ant? graceful limbs in- dolently posed as he dreamed on in complete unconsciousness. From a crevice in the marble beneath him a little head peeped out, and a darksome form crept toward him ; not the gay green inno- cent frolicksome shape of the lizard, but the wicked black head of an adder. In these old walls all manner of poisonous as of harmless creatures dwell, and no seat or couch is more dangerous than the rest which an old wall in Italy offers to the tired and thoughtless traveller. All snakes, large and small, love the noon sun ; and this adder came out after the man- ner of her kind allured by the basking heat. Did she know what she did, or did she not know ? Who can tell ? Man knows what he does when he slays ;- but these others — who can say that they know what they do though often they are wiser than we ? 'S)h^ looked out of her hole and enjoyed the great heat which fell on her flat pointed head ; and then i '^'^ emerged more fully into the light, and saw at hr*rid of a man which hung down over the 1 d^-e of mrrble and lay idly on the ground ; the slender supple delicate hand of the artist which creates beautiful things and SAJfTA BARBARA. ,- has power in all its fingers to call up visible scenes from worlds unseen by his fellows. 1 hen It seemed good to the adder to touch th.s hand, and she crept close to it on her belly and wound herself carefully round it and upward to the wrist. But her touch and her clasp were so light that the sleeper did not awaken, and she drew her head back as a chdd recoils before making a leap, and darted her tongue out like a little arrow of death, and showed her double range of fine small teeth like pins. But before those teeth could reach and penetrate the flesh, another hand seized her by the throat, gripping her so tightly that she could not move, and threw her on the ground and then with a stone killed her. The noise of the stone falhng on the marble pavement awoke Dor.t; he raised himself on his left arm, and looked with astonished eyes up into the white warm light above him. " Santa Barbara ! " he murmured ; for the woman who stood above him resembled mar- vel ously that picture which he loved and wh.ch he had gazed on that morning for the T^^^yr:^^ - ■'-.^^ in thf shadow Formosr^ ""'"" '" '"'' """''*''' °^ ^^ ^^"^ iS ^ANTA BARBARA. " It is bad to sleep upon old walls, they harbor dangerous beasts," said the woman, gravely, in the soft liquid Venetian accents. " See, Signor, I killed her, or very surely she would have killed you." " You have done me a service indeed ; I was asleep and dreaming of Sta Barbara," said Dorat ; he was still but half awake, and he looked dreamily at the little black crushed adder lying on a slab of discolored marble. Was it possible ? One touch from that small creature, one drop of venom from its fangs, and all the power of his brain and cunning of his hand might have been dulled and dead forever! The idea seemed so strange to him that he was absorbed by it for a moment. The next his eyes, still dim and heavy with slumber in the heat, saw only the face of his saviour, a face like Sta Barbara's, of the old noble warm- hued Venetian type, with strength as well as beauty in its lines, and dusky golden hair, and a mouth like a carnation. She was a woman of the people, she had a black shawl worn over her head as Venetian women so often wear one ; a linen bodice and a woollen skirt ; but these poor clothes could not con- ceal the magnificent lines of her form and the SANTA BARBARA. ,« mingled grace and strength of her hmbs; while her throat and bosom and arms were those of Veronese's Europa. "All the types in one ! " he murmured to himself, feastmg his eyes on this incarnation of womanhood till the ardor and abstraction of h.s gaze called up a vivid blush over the half offended, half diverted, frowned and aughed and turned away. •' By the Virein how you stare, 'llustrissima ! " she murmured,' as she drew her shawl closer about her breast. the seal" ^°" *" "^ •""" '* ""^^ °^^'- The homely words recalled DorSt to him- self; he rose and thanked her warmly for the serv.ce she had done him, and begged to know to whom his debt of life was owing i, 7, /""t^^'""'? ^'"'^'■' ^"<^ "'y husband IS ^uan fron, she answered. " Yes, Vene- t.ans both, what else should we be > I live dose by, in the Campiello dei Merli, where he well ,s, w.th the marble angels ; they say |t IS very old, and people come and sketch it V ou are a painter too .' " " I am," said Dordt " anri T r^^,. a_j -. .t .. ':'"''"■' ana i may come anu sue tne well with the angels > " ' " Surely, it is in the Campo ; it is not mine. liiiii ill 20 SANTA BARBARA, Anyonie may see it. But why do you lie and sleep here ? Why are you not at home if you wish to sleep?" " The heat overcame me, and but for you I might have awakened from my siesta only to sleep forever in the grave. May I ask how you came here, in a monkish sanctu- ary ? " " I came to bring some linen to Cattina, the sacristan's wife ; and she gave me leave to gathei^ some lavender ; I often come here ; the monks say nothing." *' They would indeed cease to be men if they could object ! " The calm deep blue eyes of Veronica gazed at him without comprehension of the compliment. If she seemed Barbara and Europa to him, he seemed to her a being of another world, so delicate, so slender, so sweet-voiced, so unlike the gondoliers and boatmen and sailors who made up her family and her neighbor- hood and her v/orld. She stood a moment, reflecting, in the hot sunlight with her bare feet on the marble pavement and the tawny gold of her colled hair burnished in the light. Then she stooped and nicked un a bundle of lavender which she had dropped when she SANTA BARBARA. 31 had seized and stoned the adder, and nodded ner head in farewell. " Do not sleep on old walls again," she said, carelessly ; and turned to leave the cloister. J' Wait a moment," murmured Dorat; tell me where I can find the Campiello." '• Three turns from here, one to the left and then two to the right; you cannot miss II** "And take this," he added, as he slid his watch into her hand; "take this, to remind you that I owe it to your courage and pres- ence of mmd if time has not wholly ceased to exist for me." She took the watch and gazed at it in ad- miration ; it was a gold chronometer of great value ; but after looking on it in admiration lor a moment she gave it back to him ''I want nothing," she said, with some coldness. "You owe me nothing either; and It Zuan were to hear that I took pay- ment for doing my duty he would give me the rope s end when he came home " "The brute ! " muttered DorSt, but he did not force his gift or his presence on her. . Whl give you some other memorial of this morning," he said with tender grace 22 J^ANTA BARBARA. \i : Wy as he raised her hand to his hps and kissed it reverently. That action surprised and pleased her ; she felt the homage of it and its difference from the rough wooing of Zuan Tron. "Add^!" she said to him, drawing her hand away : and with her sheaf of lavender in her arms she went out of the cloister. Then he let her go, watching her superb walk as she passed through the garden with that mingling of poetic analysis and of sen- sual desire which, together and inseparable, characterize every artistic temperament. Dor^t was accustomed to leave his easel and canvas and colors with the sacristan of San Francesco ; when he left them there this day an hour or two later, he questioned the old man as to the history of Veronica, the wife of Tron. The man had little to say in answer ; she was the daughter of Ruffo Ve- nier, a coppersmith ; Tron was a working sailor in a coasting brig. They were poor folks; she was not twenty years old; she had had one child, it was dead ; she was a handsome wench, yes, but there were others as good to look at, and in the Campo the neighbors thought that she gave herself airs ; what sort of man was Tron } well enough,' SANTA BARBARA, 23 \d kissed sed and Df it and i of Zuan iring her lavender :er. r superb len with of sen- parable, nt. is easel istan of lere this ned the lica, the ► say in iffo Ve- vorking- re poor d ; she was a others ipo the M airs • nough, honest, hard-working, good, but violent, and apt to be jealous ; he had only sailed two days before with wood for Greece; those brigs were slow but sure. Then the sacris- tan pocketed a fee and took in the easel, and a little later said to his wife that Veronica had saved a foreigner from an adder's bite. " More fool she," said his wife ; " we never do a stroke of good in this world but what it turns against us and comes and bites us." " That is true," said the sacristan, washing Dorat's brushes, - but," he added with a chuckle, " this adder will be more likelv to bite Tron." ^ In the afternoon Dor^t walked down the street of the Merceria, that busy crowded narrow alley which has some looks and sounds of the bazaars of the East in its color and confusion, and entered a jeweller's shop well known to him ; a dusky den where gold and silver, coral and agate, pearls and diamonds, and all kinds of filagree work in precious metals shone and gleamed in the deep shad- ows. Thence he selected a necklace of great price from its purity of ore and rarity of workmanship ; a gold serpent so flexible that It curled like a living snake and seemed al- ii; 24 SANTA BARBARA. Ill most imbued with life as its emerald eyes sparkled in the dark. He paid for it and put It loosely m his pocket, refusing the case in which the jeweller wished to enclose it. 1 hen he went to his gondola waiting at the water steps between the pillars of the Piaz- zetta. An hour or two later, as the heat of the day cooled, he had the gondola moored to the rmg in the landing stair of the Cam- piello dei Merli, an abandoned little square, one of those green places where, in the Ven- ice of 61d, the citizens used to keep their sheep ; surrounded now on three sides by palaces gone to ruin, and having in its centre the well with two kneeling angels, of which she had spoken, which was said or supposed to be the work of Tullio Lombardo. Poor people alone occupied these once noble houses; their rags of many colors flut- terea from the ogive windows, and naked babies tumbled in numbers on the short turf His Barbara, his Europa, lived here i To Dorat, used to luxury and ease, it seemed an outrage against nature and against art, that a creature so beautiful should dwell in such squalor ana in penury, with all the meagre and dull atmosphere of poverty. ** Can I see Veronica Venier, the wife of the erald eyes it and put ie case in inclose it. ng at the ' the Piaz- le heat of a moored the Cam- !e square, the Ven- eep their sides by- its centre of which supposed 2se once ►lors flut- id naked hort turf. re ! To emed an art, that in such meagre fe of the SJATTJ BARBARA. ^^ sailor Tron ? " he asked the people of the Campo who had come to gaze at him. Thev ■^^ri^"]' ^"''^'■---. abbreviated into Nica ! Nica ! awoke the echoes of the old d.Iap,dated walls. She came in answer out of an arched stone portico, her head uncovered shadmg her eyes with her hand from the blaze e2ected"v ' f V "^^ "'°"^'^' "'^^ ^"^^ had expected h.m, for her clothes were of a better kmd than those which she had worn in the mommg. and in her breast there was a kno 01 red carnations. said 'rlr-! """l?? '° '^^ '■'^ ^"^^'^ °f 'he well," little thmg m memory of to-day " She was leaning against the marble side of the well, and the neighbors and children as Dordt w.th a sudden movement which took her t ,.erly by surprise clasped the golden snake about her throat. ;' Ah," she cried, quickly, and with that made her h "°°' """^^^ ""'' '^' ^^'^ -h^ made her beauty so much greater. Uorat, turning to the neighbors, said: She saved my life from a snake this morn- And snakes brmg good fortune, they say " 26 SANTA BARBARA. Good fort une, indeed," grumbled one old crone, " if they hang your neck about with gold ! " Veronica, raising her arms, tried to unclasp the gold snake from her throat, but in vain ; it had closed with a spring and Her fingers could not find its secret. Dorlt, smiling, st'ood and watched her unavailing efforts. "Do not be unkind to me," he murmured, " it is but a trifle, a toy ; keep it, I entreat you. It has a grander place there than if it were ori the throat of any princess. Keep it ,in memory of me." Veronica stood irresolute ; a beautiful fig- ure with her raised hands still behind her throat, and shadows of longing, of irresolu tion, of pleasure, of fear, of embarrassment, and of natural pride all passing over her ex- pressive countenance, while the children hung on her skirts to stare, and a clove pink fell from her breast on the stones. Dor^t stooped and took up the flower. Then, being an un- erring artist in the arts of life and of love, as in his art of painting, he gave her no chance to repent or to refuse, no opportunity to de- bate or to protest, but bowed low to her as to any great lady and left the Campiello while she still stood iriesolute, the golden adder 1 ed one old ibout with to unclasp It in vain ; ler fingers ling, stood nurmured, I entreat than if it Keep it lutiful fig. ehind her f irresolu rassment, r her ex- Iren hung pink fell t stooped ig an un- f love, as o chance ty to de- her as to Ilo while sn adder SANTA BARBARA. 27 . dasped about her throat ; the children and I the women clamorous around her, and on ^'vTr yf^. '^^ ^"-^^' ^^ ^^^ ^^" kneeling with folded wings as the sculptor had left them there three hundred years before. Veronica stood there as in a dream, listen- ing to the soft splash of the gondolier's oar as he descended the narrow side-canal, now tinted with all colors and glowing with the cnmson reflections from the western skies. 1 he carnation dropped from DorSt's hold into thejater as he shifted the cushions to stretch himself at ease. Poor women in Italy often possess jewelry that IS both good and handsome, as heirlooms, or as marriage portions, but Veronica came of people too poor for her to own anything more than the silver earrings which Zuan Tron had given her on her bridal day. Her father and brothers were workers in one of the smelting furnaces ; and Tron was but a common sailor who brought home little from his voyages • slie had a room or two which she shared with Iron s sister, and she made a little money for herself by washing linen. Her name was the old ducal name of the Venier; and, maybe, she had their blood in her; maybe her an- cestors had worn the pearl-sown robes and 28 SANTA BARBARA. ^^H it 111 ' H 11 ■ It lUl'' ^H 1 P f f til I ! i 1 1 ^H ( 1 t ^^^^^^^H ■■ 1 ;< :,,fl 1; hI . H 1 ' H 1' H \ > i lit H I. i f 1' golden bugole of Dogaresse, and gone in state to hear mass at San Marco ; but, if so the traditions of such grandeur were all lost under the accumulation of the centuries, and in the darkness of ignorance and poverty. She was only a poor sailor's wife; a woman who beat hnen with wood in the canal-water and hung it on a cord to dry. - Therefore thegoldenadJermade her heart leap m her bosom with elation and triumph • and yet-and yet-she was a proud woman J and an mnocent woman ; it was not well for her to keep it, she knew that. ^ When she unclasped it from her throat at night, she laid it on her pillow ; and all the night she could not rest. . It was a night of rainless storm ; the heav- ens were filled with lightning ; and the vivid flashes came through her unshuttered case- ment, and lit up the little snake with its em- erald eyes, as it lay on the rough hempen pillow where the rude head of Zuan Tron had so often reposed. With the first flush of morning she slipped the necklace in her breast, and went out and finished her wash- ing, and spread the linen on the stones of the Campo to dry. Then when it was noonday she took her and gone in 3 ; but, if so, ^ere all lost turies, and in •verty. She woman who al-water and de her heart id triumph; >ud woman ; not well for er throat at and all the ; the heav- d the vivid ttered case- vith its em- jh hempen 1 Tron had t flush of ce in her her wash- Dnes of the 2 took her ■'■^ I SMJVrj BARBARA. gg way to the cloister of San Francesco. Do- rat was again there painting; he saw her en- trance w.th a smile ; he mistoolc her errand ; he fel a passmg irritation, a vague distaste he did not care for a woman who offered her- " She might have waited," he thought, as Lttery' '°'"' ^°'^' °' ^^'=°'"« -"^ tl,f"u ^^'"^ "°' ^^^'^ ^'' ^""-d^ ; =l»e took he gold adder out of her bosom and held it toward him. ■■ It is beautiful " she said, with a hot color n her cheelcs, " but it is not for me ; give il to your aama; I want no payment." Dordt was so surprised that for an instant he was sdent, gozing at her in stupor; a woman forego a jewel !-she could not'be in Then' 7'';°"' " '" 'he canal if you choose." him ^hef f' f ""^ ''•'"'"^ °" ^^^' showed him the full splendor of her fair skin, her ^ZTl'r 'Z '°^"-''^^ "P^. his' tone melted and changed, and grew passionate and supphcatmg. .. Keep it, keep it, not in pay- ment. hut- ip r«tr.o^i r^. , ^ J' ^ -u. .1. .v-m^uiuiarice. Did you not save my hfe from that little poisonous black bels" 30 SANTA BARBARA, P'l I have no dama ; all women that I have pos- sessed are as nothing now that I have seen you. Do you know how great your own beauty is ? " Veronica heard him with a vague terror, but with a strong confused sense of power and of pleasure. Men had told her often of her beauty ; but not in this way, or in these words. . " I cannot take it," she repeated with em- barrassment, clinging to that one idea which had brought her thither, and powerless to ex- press her feelings, as the uneducated always are. " I cannot take it. Tron would see it when he comes home and he would beat me. I came only to bring it back here, because you are a stranger and I know not where you dwell, or where you lodge even here. There is no need for you to have any gratitude. I merely took the little beast off your hand. Cattina would have done the same had she been near." Dor^t looked at her in silence; he won- dered if her rejection of it was sincere ; he believed but very little in the words of any woman. "If you be too proud to take a gift from me," he said, with affected mortification, I have pos- I have seen t your own igue terror, 56 of power her often of , or in these id with em- j idea which erless to ex- ated always ould see it Id beat me. re, because t where you re. There latitude. I y^our hand, ne had she SAJ^A BARBARA, 31 he won- incere ; he rds of any a gift from )rtification, " will you be content to earn it ? You can do so easily." Her large calm eyes, the eyes of the Sta Barbara, lightened with pleasure and expec- tation. " Earn it .? But I could never earn it ! you mean. I suppose, by washing your linen ; but It would take years." " No ; you can earn it in a week, if you will. ' " How .? " Unconsciously to herself, her whole face spoke the wistfulness and eagerness of her longmg for this toy; her breath came and went rapidly ; her whole form seemed tremu- lous with a childlike yet passionate desire. " Let me make a portrait of you," said Dor^t, simply. " Of me .? But I am nothing ! " she ex- 1". u^^ t!" ^' ^S:norance and her surprise. Why should you want to make a picture of me? Dor^t smiled ; he saw her words were quite smcere. ^ " Because you are a beautiful woman," he answered ; " you do not seem to know it or to care about it, b t it is So. If you will come to me a few hours now and then, you will 32 SANTA BARBARA. have more than earned the necklace, since you wish to earn it ; and your husband, when he sees it, will have no cause to blame you. Will you not do this little thing fpr me ? " " Feihaps," she said, slowly and doubt- ingly, for the idea was strange to her; she was of the city of Tintoretto and of Titian, but of pictures she knew nothing, though she knelt before them sometimes and said her prayers. " You wish me to come here ? " she asked. " H^re at first if you please," said Dor^t, and he looked away from her as he spoke, " but afterward you. must come to my studio. I cannot finish a portrait in the open air." " But you are making this picture of the garden in the open air ? " " This is different. Tell me, will you let me paint your portrait } Just as I saw you first, standing with the sun shining about your head and the sheaf of lavender lying at your feet. All the great world shall see it, and will see in it that the women of Palma Vec- chio and of the Veronese live still in Venice." She was silent ; the world conveyed no sense to her ; she had never been farther CiMP'V tllf» twpl-/a|-e tfinn *-r\ <-U« lol'^'^Jc? -i.f "^T _ . — _. ,T i^v^i uj iiiciii \.\j Ln\^ ibifiiiuS Oi iViuriinO and of Mazzarbo when the fruit was ripe, and, lace, since •and, when )Iame you. me ? " nd doubt- her; she of Titian, lough she said her ;he asked, .id Dor^t, lie spoke, ny studio, n air. ire of the II you let saw you bout your §• at your ;e it, and Ima Vec- Venice." veyed no m farther i Murano ripe, and, S^JVrA BARBARA. 33 though she was a manner's wife, she did not understand what other countries and other nations meant. But she understood that Dor^t thought her beautiful ; and she would not have been a woman born of a woman if she had not felt a thrill of that consciousness in her innermost being. " You will come.? " said Dor^t, softly. '' Yes," she said, slowly, " I will come." " And you will keep the necklace } " "Not till I have earned it." From that resolution he could not move her ; she would not take the little golden snake till she had earned it, though her whole soul sighed for it. He had perforce to let her go that day, for she was in haste, being wanted by her sister- m-law. "You will come back to-morrow?" he asked, persuasively. " ^^\ to-morrow," she said, calmly ; and then with her ■' Add^, 'cellenza," she went away from him across the sunlight down the marble arcade of the cloister. Dorat watched her with languid eves amorous and yet cold; he was a man who ^^u.d wait. He put the gold adder in one of the drawers of his color-box; one day very 34 SANTA BARBARA. ^i :i'!l;''!mi;^ !i^ soon it would be round her throat ; what mat- ter A day sooner or a day later when one is certain to succeed at last ? And yet the calm noble simplicity of her in her strength and beauty sank with a certain profoundness of impression into his mind, sated, selfish, and sensual though it was. " She is a grand creature," he thought, " des- pite all her ignorance and poverty and her frankness of desire for that jewelled toy." He painted very litde that day, but sat and dreamed in the sweetness of the garden, dreams of things which his youth had de- sired, and the visions of which had been hus- tled and hurried away by the rush of those passions and follies and ambitions and achieve- ments which had filled his years since the world had made him famous. " Santa Barbara se donne ^ moi," he mur- mured, recalling the words of his letter to his friend. ♦' Je ne croyais pas avoir si bien dit ! " And within a yard or two of him the litde dead body of the adder lay under the saxi- frage leaves whither the sacristan had swept it with his broom the day before ; a sun-dried, wrinkled, shrivelled litdd thing, looking like a small burnt branch, a shred of leather. Its work was done. what mat- ^hen one is y of her in h a certain his mind, :h it was. ght, " des- y and her i toy." >ut sat and e garden, h had de- been hus- h of those id achieve- since the he mur- tter to his bien dit ! " I the little the saxi- lad swept sun-dried, )king like ther. Its SANTA BARBARA. ^e The picture of the cloister and the garden was laid aside, and waited, with its canvas turned to the wall, in the sacristan's room The portrait of Veronica grew in its stead, a portrait taken in the fulness of the day- hght with that strong sunshine shed over it m which Dorat excelled ; the marble pave- ment under her feet, the rosy saxifrage and the y^Woj tiger lilies behind her, and above all the blue sky with boughs of oleander in white blossom crossing it. "The pose is a little too much like Sta Barbara s, and the pdte a little too much like Cabanel s,' thought Dor^t, who was quickly disenchanted with his own creations " It is not a Titian nor a Veronese ; it is only a Bouguereau ! " ^ But it was beautiful, and it was not the portrait which he wanted to gain, but the woman ; he was an artist indeed, but he was beyond all a voluptuary. Seven mornings she came to the garden in the warmth of the forenoon, and stood for him with the sacristan's wife and children looking on, and the monks, who were sociable and not hermits, came now and then also down the middle aisle and talked of wh^t ^ao kejno- done as became friars who had paintings of "^ 36 SANTA BARBARA. :lii!lt m \ \m Gian Bellini and the Veronese on the walls of their church hard by ; the gardener monk who came thither with his spade, and rake, and shears, and water-pot, was in especial eloquent. " It would make an altarpiece, my son, and you might give it to us," he said, ''only you have put such a profane look into it ; it will not be a holy picture if you do not correct that ; and myself I wonder why you paint new things at all ; the chromo-lithographs in the shops under the Procuratie are so very fine ; there is a reduction of the * Assumption ' of our Titian there that I would sooner have myself than the original, for the colors are brighter and the size more sensible." " Your government has had the * Assump- tion ' daubed over until it is hardly better than a chromo-lithograph, and you are verily wise as your generation is wise, my father," said Dordt, angrily, as the rotund figure of the monk, clothed in brown and with a hoe on his shoulder, came between him and the sun- light. " I cannot paint here," he said, impatiently to Veronica a little later, "I cannot paint here with these chattering fobols about us ; you must come to my studio to-mdrrow." SANTA BARBARA, m the walls lener monk ;, and rake, in especial ny son, and "only you D it ; it will not correct you paint ographs in ire so very ssumption ' Doner have colors are * Assump- better than verily wise Lther," said ure of the a hoe on id the sun- mpatiently nnot paint about us ; It row. >> " Where is that ? " " On the Fondamento of the Malcanton." You know the house where the fig-tree hangs over the wall." "But will it be well.? Cattina said but ^ yesterday to me : * See, I am here, and the children and the holy men come and go, and so Tron will not mind much when he returns but beware how you go to his house by your^ self —she meant your house." " Do not heed Cattina or anyone, and what of Tron ? He cannot be here yet. He IS gone to Greece, you say, and those heavy, laden brigs sail very slowly." *' But he will come back, sail they ever so slowly, and " " You are afraid of him } " " I do not know." She did not know ; the poor are too ignorant to sift, to analyze, to classify, and to docket their emotions and sensations as cultured minds do theirs. /'Why did you marry him ? " asked Dorat, with impatience and scorn. " I do not know," she said again. His questions disturbed her, as stones thrown in- to a well of still water trouble its clear sur- •ace* " I will tell you," said Dor^t ; - you were 38 SANTA BARBARA, a girl, and girls are curious, and vain, and inquisitive, and the first man .who comes is welcome — was it not so ? " •' Perhaps," she said, with a blush which came and went. " Zuan is handsome," she added with pride, " so strong and tall ; you would want to paint him if you saw him." " Ah," said Dorat with irritation, '* it was his good looks and his straight limbs which tempted you, then." "Perhaps," she answered again, but she answered uneasily; she was perplexed and troubled by this search into her motives and feelings. Zuan was handsome, but he was rude and violent; he swore at her in his wrath as he swore at the ropes and the sails when the waves were running high and the brig laboring through a white squall along the coasts of Dalmatia or Albania. Dordt looked at her where she stood in the transparent light ; her head and arms uncov- ered, her swelling bosom confined by the white linen bodice she wore, her whole as- pect that of one of those strong and fertile women with whom the quays and bridges and calle of Venice had been full in the days when Ciiorcrinn«=» an*^ V/at-onf»«"^ ''«-' Tw'-- had found their saints and goddesses in the SANTA BARBARA, 39 maidens drying their golden locks seated in high air on their wooden altane, and sketched their Madonnas from the young matrons suckling their big-eyed babies in the noon- day heat under the vine-bower of a traghetto. "You must come to me in Malcanton," he said, abruptly; "I cannot paint here, with these people about, and in this glare of light. What should you fear ? No one need know. If they do, it would not matter. No one will see your picture here. It will go with me to Paris." "What is Paris?" "The heaven of women and the smelting- house of genius. You do not understand? Of course you do not. That is what is so divine in you. You might be Eve or Lilith living in a virgin world." He spoke dreamily, to himself rather than to her ; and drew out the drawer of his color- box in which the gold adder lay, and turned it over with his hand carelessly, as if seeking the colors which lay beside it. Veronica's eyes fell on it ; and her heart heaved under the linen of her gown. "Come to my house," said Dor^t, softly, "come to-morrow to Malcanton." She hesitated a moment and glanced to- "^,1 40 SANTA BARBARA. ward the sacristan's wife, who was washing carrots and peeling onions between two of the marble columns. " I will come," she said, in a low voice ; *' but do not let Cattina know." "Cattina shall not know, any more than tl:e adder that lies dead in the saxifrage." Then he added a few touches, a little color, to the portrait he had made of her, so that the monk and the won .an might see him at work; and somewhat later let her go away from the garden by the narrow passages which turn and twist behind the church, pas- sages full of teeming families, curly-haired children, fluttering rags, scarlet runners cling- ing to strings, little vines which flourish seemingly without soil, and here and there in the dirt and confusion and squalor, a brass vessel of beautiful shape, a marble lintel of beautiful moulding, an iron scroll-work balco- ny fit for Desdemona, or an ogive window with some broken fresco-color on it, under which Stradella may have played a serenade in the moonlight. Dordt put the necklace once more in his pocket and went to his gondola. "A daughter of the gods, a sister of the samts/' he thought, "and yet won by a little SANTA BARBARA, 41 gold beaten out and curled ab" ^1; by a jewel- ler's cunning! They are all like that, all ; the cabotine sleeps in every madonna of them all." Veronica, meanwhile, who knew the multi- tudinous mazes of her city by heart, went on fast through the narrow ways and over the small bridges straight across the city, until behind the Grimani Palace she reached the church of Sta Maria Formoso. There she entered and crossed herself, and knelt for a few moments, then rose, and asked one of the vergers where the famous picture was. Being told, she went to the first side altar on the right of the entrance, and gazed at the Santa Barbara until her eyes were green blind. * Like me ! Like me ! " she thought. She knew nothing of pictures, less even than the monk who preferred the chromo-lithographs of the shops, but she could see that this saint was beautiful, and he had said that she, a poor common woman, a sailor's wife, resem- bled her ! She sank down on her knees before the al- tar and tried to pray again, but could not ; her heart beat too tumultuously, her brain was in too great a confusion of pride and of m'm \4lf it;"' 42 SAATTA BA/iBA/?A. pleasure. She was like this great and heav enly creature ! iilce this famous picture which strangers came from far and wide to see i •■Had It been painted from the saint her- self? she aslced of an old beggar, who was near when she rose from her knees. The old man chuckled a little, decorously, as beseemed a reverend place. "Not if they do say it was painted from Violante, the parnter s daughter, who was a iove of Ti- t.ans. Titian was in luck; she must have been a rare one, and fine and strong, coo " Veronica went out of the churcix with a dizzy sweetness dazing her mind and soul, and took her way homeward by the lovely bridge of Paradise and under the vista supcfia of Tax a Z"'-: ^^'" '^' ''^'^^'i the Cam. p.eIlo del Mem It was late; her sister-in-law was scolding vigorously, the children werecrv ing. the neighbors were quarrelling, the fish was burning m the frying-pan, the washed linen was lying in a heap on the kitchen floor, un- ironed and unstarched. It all struck on her painfully with a sudden perception wholly new to her, of Its penury, its noise, its coarseness, Its squalor, its misery. that which IS forever about us we are both SANTA BARBARA. 43 blind and deaf until some ray of light from another world than ours is shed upon our darkness. The calm green garden, the cool white cloisters, the sweet penetrating voice of DorAt, the homage and the eloquence of his eyes, all seemed lo her very far away, far as a dream of the night. "Have you sold the gold snake and brought us the money } " asked her sister-in- law. " I gave it back to the gentleman a week ago, said Veronica, in a low, unsteady tone " More fool you," said the other woman. The following day she did not go to the palace in Malcanton. On ^ the day after that, while it was still early in the forenoon, she was beating her hnen in the canal water, leaning down from an old black boat of Zuan's under the slender- shade of an acacia-tree, when the strokes of a gondolier's oars came near to her and she saw Dorat. The gondola paused by her. " Why are you unkind to me } " he mur- mured, with his hand on the side of her boat She grew very red, and with her wet fingers ^.urriedly drew together the cotton folds of her bodice which had opened as she leaned over 44 SANTA BARBARA, m m the side to dip her hnen in the water ; she felt that her hair was loose, her face and body were heated. " Why are you so unkind to me?" he re- peated. " Without you I can do nothing with this portrait which might be so beautiful." •' There are many other women, and I am busy, as you see." "Leave those rags and come with me. There is no other woman in Venice who has the face of Santa Barbara and the form of Europa. Come." "With you.? Like this.? Oh, no, oh, no ! " , She spoke in infinite distress, her hands un- consciously wringing out the folds of one of Tron's rough blue shirts. " Well, come by yourself if you will, but soon— I mean while the morning light holds. Mia cara, what use is it to have saved my life from the little snake, if you poison it to me. yourself.?" "You laugh at me when you say such follies," said Veronica, with a flush on her face, half of anger, half of humiliation, yet with a pleasure in her soul which was stronger than either. "No," said Dordt, softly, "I speak in all SANTA BARBARA. vater; she J and body ?" he re- thing with itiful." and I am with me. ; who has s form of , no, oh, hands un- )f one of will, but bt holds, d my life it to me. jay such i on her yet with g^er than ik in all 45 seriousness. Your beauty haunts me. If you will not let me capture it at least in semblance on canvas, my days will be useless and your memory joyless to me. You know nothing of the world, but there are great cities in it where I can make men worship your effigy. You know nothing of books, but I think die public reader in Venice still reads aloud Ari- osto to the people sometimes, does he not .? Ariosto, one saint's day, met a woman wear- ing a robe embroidered with golden branches of palm ; and that palm-bearer changed the ways of his life for him ; so you have changed mine." The dulcet and poetic flattery, which was none the less sweet to her thnt she only most imperfecdy comprehended it, sank into the very soul of Veronica as she listened, shrink- mg back from his gaze under the boughs of the mimosa acacia. At that moment the shrill voice of Tron's sister called to her from the Campiello. ^ " Do not let her see you," said Veronica, in terror. " Go, go, pray go ; she is a cruel woman, and Zuan bade her watch me." "Come, then, where she cannot watch von I " J — - "I will come," murmured Veronica, as she 46 SANTA BARBARA, ii!' heard the heavy step of her sister - in - law sounding nearer and nearer over the stones. " Have you not done yet, 'Nica ? " cried the woman; "a fine wife you make for a poor sailor. If Zuan hearken to me, he will bring you nought home but a rope's end. A few shirts to dip, and you are all the morning at it ! Did my brother marry you to keep you like a duchess ? " " Come to me, and you shall have in recom- pense what you will," said Dorat. Then he made a sign to his gondolier; and the man backed with a single sweep of his oar be- tween » some great black barges moored there, which screened him from the sight of the sis- ter of Zuan Tron as she came down, breath- less, blousy, dishevelled, and bursting with invectives, to the edge of the stones where the acacia grew. But Veronica did not go that day, nor the next to that. Her resistance increased his desire and his resolution a hundredfold. He followed her, he interrupted her, he besieged her ; what was it he asked ? So little ! Only a few hours of morning light that he might make her beauty as famous to the world as it was dear to him. Whenever she went to pray in the churches near, which she did w. SANTA BARBARA. 47 often, for Venetians are pious and humble children of the Church, he was there in the mellow incense-scented shadows, and his presence filled her whole existence ; she could not sleep, or work, or eat for that one thought : she was a creature of simple mind, of clear conscience, of perfect honesty, but in her nature there was a capacity for strong passion, for romantic illusion, and to these he appealed irresistibly. Zuan Tron's wooing had been brutality, not love ; had she known it, Dor^t's desires were no less brutal, and were no more love. But they were veiled in the soft, dreamy colors of art, of apparent deference, of sweet persuasive solicitation, and they seemed to her as the warm and soft south wind seemed after the bitter blasts of the north from the mountains. The contest was unequal, as unequal as the contest of the lutist and the nightingale in Ford's great poem. The lut- ist had all the resources and endurance of art and of artifice ; the nightingale had only Its own little beating heart and throbbing- throat. ^ The days passed and she did not yield ; and the cloister garden saw neither her nor Dor^t. #■ ^^m m\ B ^^^^^^K Wk '''i''^' ^HH' M ^'^ ^^H 1 111'' il: ^H i V 1 liil ^^^^^^H »f 1 \^'V ^^^^^^^^^1 Pa 1 i roi' ^^^^^^^^^H ^ ^^^^H >' m I jjjii,' ^^^B i' t'^'' ^^H 1 i "'1 ^^^H W: 11*'' ^1 1 1 1 1 ^^^^^1 i ^ ''' ' ^^H 1 n. ^^H 1 III; H f ! iiiii jjii: ^^Hl r ^Hf i|ii> i" ^^^^^^1 n m ! 1 i;i^ ^^Hil Hi-' i>i ^H I iij ^H 1 i 'ili ^H 1 li i ^^H 1 )! ! ^^H 1 ^1 1 1 ! i ^Hi ilili ^H |f!ii ^^H ^m ^ ^^H ^^^^^^^H i ■ ill ^■': , • m ■■ li '; ' ill,-' ■■■^H~ 1 <*M^ ^^^^^^^1 |!.| ^^^^^H 1 j ii«" ^^^Hhh ;!■"■' ^^^H ffi !^i; HI ^^^H N 1 ^Bi 48 SANTA BARBARA. (( That great gentleman is always after you; if you brought home leas It money, might be worth while," said the sister of Tron ; " if you brought home money may be I would say nothing to Zuan when he comes back." "You are a vile woman," said Veronica, with all her face in a glow of shame and rage ; ignorant of how much the gold coins of Dor^t had already to do with the relaxing of her sister-in-law's vigilance. But she was restless, feverish, ill at ease ; she had strange dreams when she did sleep ; and it was in vain that she besought the guidance of Sta Barbara. Sta Barbara had been a princess and a warrior, her chastity decked in armor, and the splendors of wealth around her, with her cannon and her tower, emblems of her strength. What could she know of the temp- tations assailing a poor sailor's wife ? " You are cruel to me," said Dorat, and re- peated it so often that the ignorance of her mind and the tenderness of her nature blended together in a sense of tormenting reproach ; she believed that he suffered ; his pallor, his restlessness, his heavy eyes, his feverish movements seemed to her like the suffering .'i*- SANTA BARBARA. vays after at least it i sister of ey may be he comes Veronica, hame and g-old coins e relaxing t she was id strange it was in tice of Sta :ss and a mor, and , with her 5 of her the temp" • it, and re- ice of her e blended ■eproach ; )allor, his feverish suffering 49 of the soul, and all that he told her she be- lieved. Indeed for the moment he was sin- cere ; m their desires men lie like truth be- cause they do not know that they are lying- • what they wish for is to them, as to children the universe for that one moment, and they are honest when they vow it is so. " Will ycu come once more at least to the cloister 1 if you will not to my house," he asked,, -what can you fear.? Zuan Tron himself might see you in the garden, what could he say.? We are hardly ever alone. It IS a sacre ace." " I will c: ;;- once more, then, there," said Veronica, reluctantly; and yet with all her whole bemgm a tumult of longing fear and 2: 2 '°u "?' ^^ ^"y ^'■°"ff °' perilous, she thought; the children ran in and out Cattrna was the sacristan's wife, always near, usually some monk paced through the aisles. There could be no risk of harm in going there, she thought. ^ It was a brilliant morning when she reached ban Francesco on the morrow. Rain had fallen m the night and washed all things fresh and fe.r. The herbs in the garden filed the a.r w.th pungent sweetness. Some lizards swayed themselves on the blossoms of the \ 50 SANTA BARBARA. liiii'f; 1 1: rose laurels. Some pigeons scratched among the thyme and basil. " I thank you for this at least," said Dordt, grave 7 and with deference ; the portrait of her, in its shadowy, unfinished suggestion, stood on an immense easel within one of the arcades. He placed her in the attitude of the Sta Barbara, and himself almost turning his back on her, and only looking at her fur- tively from time to time, painted on steadily without heeding the woman Cattina who came and looked on till she was tired, or the gar- dener monk who was digging in one of the borders, or the sacristan who said that the picture would be a better one if Veronica bor- rowed his wife's best feast-day gown, a fine blue gown with red and yellow ribands at- tached to it. Dor^t answered them no single word, and they talked till they were tired, and went away unnoticed and displeased. It was noon when he had worked two hours ; the drowsy heat lay like a weight upon the eyelids ; the green leaves lost their verdure and drooped ; the monks went into the monastery, the shutters were shut in the sacristan's windows, and the church itself was closed ;' entire silence reigned everywhere. m :hed among said Dorat, portrait of suggestion, I one of the attitude of ost turning at her fur- on steadily a who came or the gar- one of the id that the ironica bor- own, a fine ribands at- : word, and went away noon when rowsy heat ; the green )oped ; the le shutters dows, and cire sih SANTA BARBARA, rj Dor^t turned and laid down his palette and brushes and looked at her ; she colored over all her face and throat under that gaze which seemed like a very flame of fire stealing into all the recesses of her soul. She had stood still like a thing carved in marble for two whole hours ; a sense of oppression, of faint- ness, ol dizziness came over her, strong though she was in her sea-fed vigor and youth. her till he was so close that his lips brushed her hair and with a touch soft and swift as the touch of the living adder had been, his hands stole round her throat, and clasped the golden adder around it. Then, unresisting, she sank into his arms. "Santa Barbara s'est donn^e i moi " thought Dorat a month later, "et que puis-je en faire, mon Dieu ? " •* The warmth of the summer passed; the dHfte/'T '"u "''^"'^^^ the white fogs f:t' ■':/''7 *« Adriatic and shrouded the ..ulp^ures of the Salute, and the golden domes of St. Mark's as in a vapor of !now" fii iiiii; 'i 1:1!, !;.:ii niiiiilii' liil'iil' ;.:ni ill III! ilk ItjlHtb Milli'*''!; ! ''"'il i I m w m hi i ml i .b 52 SANTA BARBARA. the noons were still hot and the waters still were beautiful, with fruit boats and barges . piled high with grapes coming in from all the isles, and filling the city with their regal pur- ple and gold. And in the studio on the canal of the Malcanton a great picture was finished in which his fullest genius and mastery of color had found exprassion ; the portrait of 1 wom- an with the head of Sta Barbara and the body of Europa. Painted with singular rapidity and strength, it had the vitality of a sudden passion in it ; it lived, it breathed, it spoke ; it was the incarnation of Woman. But^ he had given a high price for it. He had created a passion in another over which he had no control, one of those mtense un- reasoning absolute passions which can onlj exist in natures which are all sense and emo- tion, and over which the mind has no domi- nance, and in which all reason is dumb. He had destroyed in her the calm of igno ranee, and the simplicity of unconscious chas- tity ; and there had arisen in their stead one of those violent, delirious, exhausting tem- pests of love, which is ecstasy to a lover for a little time, and then appalls, enthralls, wearies, and burdens him, and clings to him., fatal as the shirt of Nessus. SANTA BARBARA. II waters still and barges Vom all the r regal pur- •n the canal ^as finished ery of color : of 1 wom- id the body ar rapidity f a sudden , it spoke; for it. He iver which n tense un- i can onl) and emo- » no domi- umb. m of igno lious chas- stead one Jting tern- lover for a 3, wearies, n, fatal as She was a beautiful woman, yes ; but when her beauty had been made wholly his, and studied, devoured, and known in every line both by his art and by his senses, her -mind could say nothing to his, and he asked him- self witii a sigh what should he do with this adoration which he had called into being ? He had no love for her ; and the violence the immensity, the absorption of the love she felt for him terrified him. He had desired a summer week's caprice, a conquest for his art and for his senses, and she dreamed of an eternity of union. All the ardors dormant in her had awakened into life, and clung to him with a force which was commensurate with the physical strength and the splendid vitality in Iier. Sometimes he felt as if the adder she had killed had taken resurrection in her, and clasped him and curled round him and drew away his very life until he swooned. He had forgotten the sheer animalism of the untutored human creature, and the in- tense avarice and jealousy and greed of love in a woman whose intelligence is a blank. And he was himself unreasonable. He had had no rest until he had banished her modes- ty, her serenity, her peaceful ignorance of passion, and yet he was dissatisfied now be- i 54 SANTA BARBARA, II :;ii!i , cause she was no longer the same woman who had looked at him with those tranquil eyes of Palma Vecchio's saint. The chill of the autumn was on the air, the mists of the autumn made the sails limp and wet, the lagoons drear and rough, the golden altars of the churches dim and dull ; and Ven- ice held him no more in her sovereign charm ; he grew restless for mcement and change and the cities and companionship of men. " All of her that I care to keep is here," he thought as he looked at the picture, " and what can I do with the living woman ? " And he felt unkind, unn^rateful, almost base ; yet the poet is right : How is it under our control To love or not to love ? !ii: If he took her away with him, he knew well what the issue would be : the old, old story ; the terrible idolatry on one side gnawing ever stronger oix neglect and coldness, the indiffer- ence on the other which would become, under exaction and reproach, impatience, intoler- ance, and even at the last hatred, the cruellest hatred of all : that which spurns what it once fondly sought. tiiiii^ SANTA BARBARA. 55 ; and Ven- ign charm ; md change ip of men. 3 here," he ture, " and an?" most base ; knew well old story ; awing ever he indififer- ome, under :e, intoler- le cruellest bat it once He knew it so well, and he was sorry ; for in so far as he could feel it, being of the tem- perament he was, he had a compassion which was almost affection for this woman who had saved his life while he slept in the cloister garden, and who had seemed to him on his awakening half a goddess, half a saint, and whom he knew now to be but a poor daugh- ter and wife of rude men, a poor child of ig- norance and toil, with whom his mind and his thoughts had no affinity, however closely their hearts might beat together. And how to tell her this .? he who had made himself her earth and heaven.? whose own paradise in- deed she had even been for a few short sum- mer weeks in the sweet languor of the Vene- tian air ? She had saved his flesh from the sting of the adder, and he had placed in hers the dy- ing sting of a deathless desire. It was harsh, ungenerous, ungrateful, but he knew that he must leave her, that he would ' leave her, as soon as the first north winds of November should blow the sea-spray over the stairs of the Ducal Palace and wash the rosy feet of the pattering pigeons in its courts. The thought of Zuan Tron was unpleasant 56 SANTA BARBARA, fel h f to him, but not intolerable as it would have been earlier in the year. He did not feel for her that love which creates jealousy, either of the past or of the future. What he most feared of ail was that she should quarrel with her husband, and lean wholly on himself. But how could he say that to her when she came to him up the mar- ble water steps of his house in the moonlight with such surety and ecstasy of love in her eyes ? , " My poor Veronica, it would have been well for you if you had let the adder do its work on me that day," he murmured once to her. But she would not understand. She smiled and sighed, that sigh which means that joy is beyond words. How could she tell that this adoration, this ardor, these embraces were not love— were merely the play of a grown child to whom no plaything could long suffice? Zuan Tron might kill her when' he came home ; that she knew ; and sometimes the terror of his vengeance ran like ice through the leaping warmth of her veins. But she put that thought from her. She was not twenty years old and she was happy. To other eyes she was only Veronica Venier, SANTA BARBARA, 57 the wife of Tron ; but to herself, because to her lover, she was a goddess, a queeii of heaven, even as the Barbara was in her im- mortality, even as the Europa was with her white breasts and shining hair. She had drunk deep of the philtre of vanity and pas- sion ; and when she trod the stones of court and calle she walked as one whose winged feet tread on air. Was she not more than mortal } Had he not found her fair } " Thou ,rt a fool, thou art a fool ! But I have m .de solid money out of thee, and though the gallant will go with the summer, these^pieces will stay behind him," thought her sister-in-law, counting over tlje bright gold and the crisp notes which she had had from Dorat, and which she had laid up with her feast-day clothes with sprigs of Easter- blessed olive to keep thieves away. Zuan would be none the wiser when he came home that thieves had been at his treasure ; sailors went and came and were long away, and must take their chance of what was done in their absence. "He will be back at Ognissanti," said Veronica once, and her eyes had a look of c^ppv^ai aii-a leiiur in Liiem as tney gazed mto Dorat's. He looked away from them. I;.:'.: m^' 58 SANTA BARBARA. " Ognissanti is not here yet," he answered, " and ships do not always reach the port for which they are bound." " She is a good brig, and they know every knot of her course as I know the turns of the calle," she said with a shudder which passed over the fine smooth skin Hke a cold breeze that blows over the sun-warmed waters. " We will show him your portrait when he comes," said Dor^t, and smiled. The Othel- los of life had no terrors for him ; this one would np doubt take gold as his sister had taken it. " He is only a working sailor, is he? " he added. " Well, we will buy him a brig of his own ; then he will be owner and skipper in one, and he will be always away on the seas, and you will be at peace." " No," said Veronica, abruptly, " you shall not do that." The coarseness of the cultured mind stung and wounded the instinctive honor of the un- taught nature. Then with passionate tender- ness and entreaty she threw her white arms, the arms of Europa, about his throat. " Take me away before he comes," she murmured, " take me to your own country, your own city, anywhere, before he comes." '